Episodes

Kansas lawmakers have ended their 2018 legislative session. School spending, guns, and taxes were at the center of big debates this year. This week we discuss what passed, and what didn't. Subscribe to Statehouse Blend Kansas, and stay up to date with the latest news from the Kansas Legislature: iTunes , Google Play , and on the NPR One app .

In an election year with a state supreme court ruling hanging over their heads, Kansas lawmakers wrestled over school spending, taxes and guns. They fought among themselves and often split ways from legislators they’d chosen as leaders. In the end, they decided not to throw a tax cut to voters . It would have partly reversed tough political choices they made a year before to salvage state government’s troubled financial ledger.

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens allegedly directed a staffer to obtain a donor list from the veterans charity he founded and lied about it to the state ethics commission, according to a special House committee report released Wednesday. Immediately, Democrats and some Republicans again called for Greitens, who faces two felony charges, to step down. Greitens' camp dug in with legal counsel Catherine Hanaway's statement that said the report "does a tremendous disservice to the U.S. and Missouri...

Janelle DuBree didn’t need statistics to see that foster kids are traumatized. The evidence was spilled, smashed and smeared all over her kitchen and down the hallway. Two of the younger girls she took in, on one of their first nights in her Emporia home, raided the kitchen around 2 a.m. Eggs were cracked and trailed everywhere — on the floor, the countertops, the side of the refrigerator. Her carpet was soaked in bright red Hawaiian Punch. DuBree adopted the girls, now 7 and 9, from a...

Changes in federal tax law could actually cost some Kansans more in state taxes. Kansas lawmakers might turn down that revenue windfall and add an election year tax cut instead. A bill they’re backing would cost roughly the same amount as a court-triggered boost to school spending.

All the commotion around a school funding plan may have overshadowed the fact that Kansas lawmakers are also working on a controversial tax cut bill. Some say it simply returns a federal windfall to Kansas taxpayers. Others argue it’s unaffordable at a time when the state is still recovering from former Governor Sam Brownback’s 2012 tax cuts. Subscribe to Statehouse Blend Kansas, and stay up to date with the latest news from the Kansas Legislature: iTunes , Google Play , and on the NPR One...

Lawmakers and Governor Jeff Colyer have written another chapter in the story of this ongoing debate by authorizing a $500 million increase in school funding over the next five years. But will that be enough to end the litigation? If not, are we headed for another showdown like the one that rocked the Statehouse in 2005? Subscribe to Statehouse Blend Kansas, and stay up to date with the latest news from the Kansas Legislature: iTunes , Google Play , and on the NPR One app . Jim McLean is...

After months and months of debate, it’s finally happened. The Kansas Legislature has passed a school funding plan. Now, the questions are whether lawmakers can fix a mistake in the plan and, once fixed, whether it increases funding enough to satisfy the Kansas Supreme Court. Subscribe to Statehouse Blend Kansas, and stay up to date with the latest news from the Kansas Legislature: iTunes , Google Play , and on the NPR One app . Music used in this episode: Warming Evening by Nameless...

Much of Kansas City’s economic development over the past few decades is thanks, in part, to tax breaks given to developers by the city. The shops at Zona Rosa and Briarcliff in the Northland, the Power and Light District and Crossroads Arts District downtown, and the massive Cerner development in south Kansas City, just to name a few, all benefit from tax abatements. But developers may have a tougher time getting those breaks under a bill making its way through the Missouri legislature.

In some states, abortion is on the agenda just about every year. Missouri is one of those states, and it is one where efforts to regulate or restrict abortion are often successful. Last week, the House passed a bill banning abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Host Brian Ellison talks with the bill's sponsor, Rep. Donna Lichtenegger , and KCUR's health editor, Dan Margolies , to put the legislation in the broader context of Missouri abortion law and the numerous court challenges it...

The clock is ticking for the Kansas Legislature to agree on a new school finance formula. One lawmaker in the middle of the debate says while progress is being made, it’s not happening fast enough. On this episode, the story of the legislature’s increasingly frantic efforts to meet the court’s end of the month deadline. Subscribe to Statehouse Blend Kansas, and stay up to date with the latest news from the Kansas Legislature: iTunes , Google Play , and on the NPR One app . Music used in...

Is this the right time for a new political party in Kansas? Can an independent candidate win the governor’s race? The coming election could give us answers to both questions. The viability of independent candidates and parties in this edition of Statehouse Blend Kansas. Subscribe to Statehouse Blend Kansas, and stay up to date with the latest news from the Kansas Legislature: iTunes , Google Play , and on the NPR One app . Music used in this episode: Warming Evening by Nameless Dancers;...

For decades, city officials say Kansas City police would write about 300,000 traffic tickets a year. The last few years that's dropped below 120,000, according to Kansas City Police Department records. While that may be good for drivers, it’s bad for the city’s bottom line. “So what we’re seeing is, not only a decline in the number of tickets but a decline in the corresponding revenue that are used to support city operations,” says Kansas City City Manager Troy Schulte.

Last year the Kansas Supreme Court ruled the state wasn't adequately funding its public schools. What the justices didn’t say was how much more money would be enough. But a new development has potentially changed the debate to the tune of $2 billion dollars. Subscribe to Statehouse Blend Kansas, and stay up to date with the latest news from the Kansas Legislature: iTunes , Google Play , and on the NPR One app . Jim McLean is managing director of the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of...

Ever since Congress passed major changes to U.S. tax policy, Missouri leaders have been mulling their own changes to the state tax code that might leave your tax bill looking very different next year. We talk with House Speaker Pro Tem Elijah Haahr , a Republican representative from Springfield, about how his 429-page plan can call itself "revenue-neutral." Subscribe to Statehouse Blend Missouri, and stay up to date with the latest news from the Missouri General Assembly: iTunes , Google...

Are Kansas’ strict voter registration laws necessary protections against fraud, or are they a nakedly political attempt to disenfranchise certain voters? That question is at the heart of a fedral trial going on in Kansas. We explain this complicated issue and get the latest from the Statehouse. Subscribe to Statehouse Blend Kansas, and stay up to date with the latest news from the Kansas Legislature: iTunes , Google Play , and on the NPR One app . Music used in this episode: Warming...

In the weeks since the shooting at a Parkland, Florida high school, student activists and others have taken to the streets in an effort to spur policy makers to talk about how we regulate guns. But, is that debate happening here in Kansas? Subscribe to Statehouse Blend Kansas, and stay up to date with the latest news from the Kansas Legislature: iTunes , Google Play , and on the NPR One app . Jim McLean is managing director of the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public...

Missouri's last impeachment proceeding was in 1994, and it's never happened with a governor. That could change this year as a House committee begins an investigation of Gov. Eric Greitens following his indictment on a felony invasion of privacy charge. Host Brian Ellison talks with a member of that committee, Rep. Gina Mitten of St. Louis. The Assistant Minority Floor Leader and ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Mitten describes the uncertainty of creating a process for an...

Statewide criminal registries took off in the 1990s, fueled by crimes against children and a desire to alert people to the presence of sex offenders in their neighborhoods. But some are saying that Kansas’ database has gotten out of hand , that it’s expanded to include too many different types of offenders . So, a debate is beginning about how it might be streamlined. Subscribe to Statehouse Blend Kansas, and stay up to date with the latest news from the Kansas Legislature: iTunes , Google...

Kansas is one of a handful of states that have not expanded Medicaid. This has created a gap for patients who are too poor to afford insurance, but make too much money to be eligible for Medicaid. Advocates say that expansion could give coverage to these people, but with consistent legislative opposition, what are the odds of a bill passing this year? Subscribe to Statehouse Blend Kansas, and stay up to date with the latest news from the Kansas Legislature: iTunes , Google Play , and on...